I was one of those 'unfortunate' kids who went through the 'amo, amas, amat' process at 11 years old, and contrary to any claims otherwise, it never did me any harm. Far from it, it set me up for an understanding and appreciation of European languages that I am sure would not have come about otherwise. I have an abiding passion in particular for Italian, surely the widest-spread of the nearest to Latin's surviving relatives.
I wish I could hear what colloquial spoken Latin sounded like spoken by Romans, and whether the strict rules of grammar as taught at school were ignored as widely as they are in modern languages - I'm sure they must have been. I wonder if those very rules were imposed by the Roman Catholic church, rather than by native Romans?

Sam

"Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" - 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter'.
Dante (Durante degli) Alighieri, "La Divina Commedia", "Inferno", c 1308-1321